The present invention relates in general to a prefabricated building structure and in particular to a prefabricated building structure having a collapsible hip roof.
In the building construction industry, a technique has been developed and extensively used for constructing prefabricated building structures. The technique consists of fabricating modular building units at a manufacturing site, hauling such units on vehicles to remote sites, transferring the units from the hauling vehicles onto a foundation at the home site, securing the units together on the foundation to form an integral building structure, and then connecting the electrical, water and sewage lines of the structure to appropriate utility lines. The use of such a technique has enabled the use of mass production methods in the fabrication of building structures, thus providing increased economy, improved product quality, and reduced construction time.
Because prefabricated modular units must be transported over public highways from a manufacturing site to a remote erection site, one of the principal limiting factors in the design of building structures constructed of modular units has been the restrictions on the size of modular units transported over public highways imposed by municipal, county and state governments, or dictated by highway conditions such as road and tunnel widths, clearance heights of underpasses, and the like. Generally, municipal, county and state governments have adopted various vehicle ordinances restricting the height, length and width of any unit transported over public highways.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,354 to Powell, which is herein incorporated by reference, discloses a prefabricated building structure consisting of two or more modular units, which is provided with a roof having a standard roof pitch and in which the heights and widths of the modular units fall within the permissible dimensional limitations with respect to hauling the units over public highways. Conventional prefabricated modular units for residential building structures, such as disclosed in Powell, have been limited to structures with gable roofs. Because only gable roof structures are available, a buyer of prefabricated residential housing is necessarily limited in his or her choice of roof design. Furthermore, when an entire subdivision is comprised of prefabricated homes having gable roofs, the homes tend to be indistinguishable because of the lack of variety.
The present invention provides a prefabricated building structure having a hip roof which is collapsible so that the modular units may be safely and legally transported over public highways. The provision of a collapsible hip roof design allows prefabricated home buyers a greater selection in home design. In addition, subdivisions comprised of prefabricated homes may include both gable roof and hip roof designs, thereby improving the appearance of the subdivision. The present invention also includes a method for erecting the collapsible hip roof at the home site and a method for making the hip roof system.